Catching up with street artist Qubek…

Catching up with street artist Qubek…

In true Stopford style, I first meet Qubek escaping the downpours of rain under a gazebo. He’s spray painting away next to his old collage pal Alto. Despite the cold and rain, the mood is good between the duo as they each go to work on a 6x4ft board. Dilla records are playing; the laughs are frequent and there’s can each of Runaway beer at their side.  

We’re outside the old Stockport College art building ahead of Art Battle, the building is about to undergo a major (yet sympathetic) renovation. The pair first met here when they went to collage together many years ago, now back for the first time in a long-time, there’s an air of mischief reignited in the duo as the memories come flooding back. 

For those who don’t know Qubek, real name Russell Meehan, calling him a local legend would be underplaying his cultural importance as one of the areas true creative powerhouses. His most famous work, the 22 bee mural brought hope and inspiration at a point when the city needed it most after the Manchester Arena terror attack.

But that work is just the tip of the iceberg, Qubek has been commissioned by some of the biggest brands and places and his work regularly travels the world through the power of social media, drawing people to see his murals.

We pull him away from the cans for five minutes to get a feel for who he is, understand his connection to Stopford and find out more about what it takes to be a creative, including his run ins with the law!

Qubek, it’s amazing to have you here tonight, you’ve got a big connection to this place, can you tell us a little bit about that? 

So yeah, when I left school, I wanted to come here and do art, but essentially, I didn’t have the right qualifications, or the right number of GCSEs.  Fortunately, the teachers here had a look at my portfolio and said, yeah, you can come on the advanced course. 

So, I just got in by the, you know, scruff of my neck! And basically, I spent two years here, learning all aspects of art and design.

And then the skate park where we used to skate is literally across the road as well. So, I know, this area. Spent most of my life here, going to the art gallery, learning what to do, practicing in these rooms in this old building. 

It was the first time that I actually started doing graffiti illustrations as well. I remember drawing some for some of my friends here and then learning a little bit about spray paints. Well, not too much! But you get the idea! So, it all started here in this building. I never thought I’d be coming back here. So, it’s a great surprise. 

 

So, for those that don’t know, you go by the name of Qubek.  Tell us what you do and how got into it? 

 

Yeah, so initially I just used to do graffiti, you know, in my younger years. And then eventually got into doing commissions, getting employed by the council and other different agencies. And it’s just grown from there really. I’m 43 now, and I started doing it professionally when I was about 28. Now, I employ other artists and we go all over painting murals.

But yeah, it’s my passion and it’s my job, and my whole life revolves around it. 

It’s all happened quite organically. I never meant to make it into a career, but it just has. Essentially, my whole purpose every day is to go and paint murals for other people. And when I’m not doing it for them, I do my own artwork. 

 

There’s a high chance you’ve walked past some of your work in Stockport and Manchester and don’t necessarily know it’s by you, can you tell us about some people will have seen?  

 

Okay, well, I’ve done like hundreds of paintings in and around Manchester and Stockport. I’ve done one on Underbank next to the Cracked Actor pub, on a big wall. Then I’ve just done one next to Red Rock Cinema and there’s a huge nature scene for groundwork.

But the most famous piece that I did, and probably the one that propelled me into people’s minds was the 22 Bees memorial piece that I painted after the arena attack. 

I was painted bees all over Manchester, and everyone called me the Bee Man. So, I think it was quite natural that they asked me to do it. But obviously, that was shared all around the world and was seen by millions of people. 

It was one of three paintings I did at the time, just to commemorate people, to bring people together. Since then, I’ve raised like $410,000 for charity by painting canvases and giving them to charities to auction them off. 

That’s phenomenal!

I felt like I needed to give something back after the arena attack, like I was propelled to the forefront of the Manchester art scene. I felt a bit guilty about that. So I thought I needed to do more, you know what I mean? 

So that was the most famous thing that I’ve done.  

Then, there was a piece in Stevenson Square that my friend painted, a David Bowie piece, and I painted over it with sloth from the Goonies and that got in the Manchester Evening News!

Then the next week I went and did the Aladdin Sane with Thunderbolt on his face and that got to Manchester England News again. 

Then I depicted Donald Trump losing the election the first time around and that got a piece in the paper. 

There’s also a huge one in Eccles that’s hidden away, but it’s one of the biggest murals in Manchester, it depicts the history of the area, the first steam hammer, the industrial parts of Eccles, some of the more famous things. That’s massive, but you know, it’s hidden on James Nasmith Way. 

I’ve painted so many pieces. The thing is with street art, you know, it comes and goes. Some of them have gone, some of them are still there! 

 

What’s your thought process with it, what you’re trying to do? 

It changes. Obviously, like I said, I’ve done political stuff. But I always want a funny slant on it because I’m not a serious person and I like to make people laugh. I always have done, and I think if you can do that with art, it can brighten people’s day. 

A lot of street art is quite kind of bland in a way, you know, just pictures for the sake of it being a picture. I like to work on a topic or something that’s topical at the moment in the news and make it slightly funny and tongue-in-cheek, you know, I think that’s like it, it’s a really cool thing to be able to do. 

And the thing is, with good street art, you can’t fail to see it. You know, you’re walking past this massive painting on a wall, it’s a good way of self-promoting and it’s a really good way of getting out your thoughts, in a way that’s engaging to the public. That’s why I started to do the bees. They were a symbol of Manchester, and I just thought I’d love to paint them because spray paint lends itself nicely to getting like realistic effects and shiny effects and hair and stuff like that. So I just thought, I’m going to paint some bees. I thought, people probably like seeing them, why not? And they did, you know, and it just went crazy.  ‘Oh, wow, look at that bee?’ You know it’s only a simple connection, but it’s still a nice connection.

My idea, was I was going to paint them everywhere and people could get a map and actually go around and find them, which never happened. HAHAHA. But, that’s the thing with artists we’ve always got100 ideas and you never really finish the last one, you go on to the next one!

 

You mentioned a moment earlier, you’ve gone from starting out in art and trying to make a career of it, to now employing people. How did this thing you love go from just you, to you plus others? 

It’s just all through connections, really. Once you start working like I do in a commercial way with commercial clients, with commercial clients’ budgets, you know, you only go up. You only do better and get better work for people who have more money.

 But that’s not what it’s all about, that naturally happened, I started doing kids’ bedrooms at first and then painting with kids in youth clubs or in schools. Then started working for commercial clients, maybe doing someone’s office building. It’s all just through connections made with other people. I don’t advertise what I do. All my work comes from people passing my number over. That’s the beauty of Instagram these days or Facebook, that people are following me.

It’s a really organic, natural process, really. But we do some big projects now, we did one in London last year, and I had nine artists all working at the same time for five days because the project was that big, basically. 

 

Onto Stopford, sounds like you’re local. The town is on the up at the momen, how does it feel to be part of it? 

Yeah, well, I basically moved there when I was 11. I lived in London before this because my dad was in the army, so we moved all over the place for years. I moved here and we stayed here. I learned how to do graffiti here in Stockport. I got arrested for doing it here in Stockport, and that’s what kind of changed it really. That’s when I first was like, right, okay, I need to figure out how to do this without you never being too risky. 

And yeah, I’ve seen it changed, like you’re saying. It was actually buzzing when we first moved up here. You know, there’s a lot going on, and it’d just declined and now it’s on the way up again, isn’t it? I think Street Art has been a major factor in that as well! 

I know Sean Stockport beer, he’s, got us doing a few things and other people have, and it just feels like the street art is one of the things that’s reinvigorated some life and some colour and some attitude back into the place as well. 

And yeah, it’s a special place for me. It’s where I spent most of my early life and then I’ve managed to do some of the murals that I painted are actually depict what I got into, what I was into, you know, going into the woods, Wood bank Park, like swimming in the rivers, you know, doing all that kind of stuff, that nature mural that I did was essentially my memories, growing up here. 

So yeah, it’s changing and changing for the better. It’s cool to come back bringing positivity energy into the place and changing it for the good. 

How important do you think art is for bringing people together? 

There’s a thing with art, it’s interesting, isn’t it? If you put a mural somewhere, it’s going to draw people to that place to look at it, and then they’re going to spend money in the shops that are there as well and stay around that area. So, as far as the murals are concerned or events like this, it can only be a positive thing. It just brings an edge to an area, like independent artists, studios, murals, all that stuff, it just makes it feel a bit more inclusive and just a bit more interesting, you know, like rather than just grey walls everywhere, you can actually walk around and be entertained.

 

Do you think art takes people away from heavily produced places which are designed to drive consumerism?  

That’s the thing with it, it feels quite independent now Stockport. There’s a lot of independent businesses. Inclusive for places you can take your kids. It all feels like it’s got to a point where it’s like you would go to Stockport now.  There is a lot going on and a lot of opportunities for people to get involved in cultural experiences like this one, basically, crazy. 

Last one for you. If you were starting out, what would you advise aspiring artists do if they want to following in your footsteps? 

It was different in our day, we just used to go to abandoned factories to do graffiti, because there weren’t many places to do it, but I suppose now, there are specific areas where you can go and paint legally. The skate parks, under the Mancunian way, they’re quite open to people going and painting there. You just need to ask and figure out where you can do it. Obviously, you can do it at home in the garden, you need to practice as much as possible if you want to use spray paint. You need to find areas that will allow you to and practice as much as you can. For the business side of things, obviously open an Instagram, Facebook, really market yourself as an artist and try and get your work out there and try and be clever about it as well. Paint things that relate to other people or ask businesses if they’d like to commission you. You’ve got to really push yourself and be really proactive about it. And in a way, don’t expect to be able to be a working artist straight away, you know? I mean, I was always painting. I used to work in a factory and I’d be drawing, I had a drawer full of drawings, basically, because that’s all I did all day long. 

The passion never leaves you if you’re into it, and that’s what you kind of need. It’s got to be something that’s really, you know, ingrained in you and you will get there eventually. This is the thing I never thought I’d be a working artist. But looking back at it now is because I never stopped. It’s just all about that passion and the push. Pushing yourself basically as much as you can.